Performance schedule of Bachacademy Stuttgart

20. October,   Thursday   20:00 Concert in Shenzhen Concert Hall,
21. October,   Friday        20:00 Concert in Guangzhou Xinghai Concert Hall

24. October   16:00-17:00  Masterclass by Maestro Helmuth Rilling in Central Conservatory of Music

25. October,   Tuesday    19:30 Beijing International Music Festival -- Concert in Beijing Forbidden City Concert Hall
27. October,   Thursday   19:30 Shanghai International Arts Festival --Concert in Shanghai Oriental Art Center

Helmuth Rilling

“Music should never be merely comfortable, never fossilized, never soothing.  It should startle people and reach deep down inside them, forcing them to reflect.” This is Helmuth Rilling’s personal Credo.

Helmuth Rilling was born in Stuttgart in 1933, and is known throughout the world as an acclaimed conductor, pedagogue and Bach scholar. In 1954, he founded his internationally-recognized chorus – the Gächinger Kantorei. Eleven years later, the Bach Collegium Stuttgart was added as the choir’s regular orchestral partner. It was then that Mr. Rilling began his intensive work with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. An equally fervent advocate of neglected Romantic choral music, Rilling has also regularly commissioned and presented contemporary choral music by significant composers of our time. Together with his own ensembles or as a guest conductor, he performs on the international concert podium throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia, and South America. Additionally he appears with many of the most important orchestras in the world such as the Vienna Philharmonic, New-York Philharmonic or Japanese NHK-Symphony Orchestra.

Professor Rilling, has cultivated a special friendship with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for more than thirty years and performed with this orchestra and his Gächinger Kantorei in more than 100 concerts (until 2009).

He is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Oregon Bach Festival, begun in 1970 and now recognized as one of America’s most prestigious music festivals. In 1981, he founded the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, which at first focused on furthering the music of J.S. Bach through the present day and in the course of time grew as an exceptional institution which today can be described best in the three major fields of it’s activities: ensembles (Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart) – performance (Akademiekonzerte, Bachwoche Stuttgart and MUSIKFEST STUTTGART) – education and outreach (master classes, symposia, children’s programmes).

Working with young musicians from around the globe has always been a central focus of Rilling’s work, and led 2001 -2009 to the formation of the Festivalensemble Stuttgart. It will be followed by the “Young Stuttgart Bach-Ensemble” starting in 2011. Rilling presents workshops for students in all parts of the world in his international “Bach Academies”.

In Rilling’s schedule 2010 and 2011 we find Japan, USA, Spain and Italy. 2011 he will tour China with Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart for the first time.

Helmuth Rilling’s inexhaustible, creative activity is documented in hundreds of CD, radio and television productions. He was the first to record all cantatas by J.S. Bach, and was the artistic vision behind the International Bachakademie’s critically-acclaimed project to record all Bach’s works, released as 172 CDs during the Bach anniversary year in 2000.  In the same year, Rilling won the coveted Grammy Award for his recording of Krzysztof Penderecki´s Credo, and was again nominated in 2001 for his recording of Wolfgang Rihm´s Deus Passus. Recent recordings include works of Haydn, Händel, and Gubaidulina [The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ according to St. John, "Echo Klassik" Award in 2008], as well as a live recording of Britten’s War Requiem ["Editor's Choice Award" of the British Gramophone Magazine], the Rilling-commissioned “Messiah” from Sven-David Sandström and the Verdi-Requiem
The recipient of numerous international awards, Helmuth Rilling received the UNESCO International Music Prize in 1994, and the Theodor Heuss Prize Taten der Versöhnung [Deeds of Reconciliation] in 1995. In 2003, he became an Honorary Member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, and in 2008 – on the occasion of his 75th birthday – he was awarded the Staufer Gold Medal, the highest award of the State of Baden-Württemberg.

GÄCHINGERKANTOREI  STUTTGART

The Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart was founded in 1954 by Helmuth Rilling and is named after a small village in southern Germany. The Gächinger Kantorei is a professional choir with a regular core membership which meets on a project-by-project basis, and has ranked amongst the world’s major concert choirs for several decades.

BACHCOLLEGIUM  STUTTGART

The Bach Collegium Stuttgart was founded in 1965 by Helmuth Rilling as instrumental partner for the Gächinger Kantorei. The group’s complete recording of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, released in 1985, has raised its profile as a leading Baroque music ensemble performing in a historically-informed style. But the Bach Collegium mainly performs on modern instruments, and thus, it can constantly expand its repertoire. It is now a highly flexible orchestra, and one which can interpret works of all periods in masterly fashion.

The Gächinger Kantorei and Bach Collegium Stuttgart have been incorporated into the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart since 1981. The main concert activities of the choir and orchestra take place as part of the Bachakademie’s concerts in Stuttgart and in the MUSIKFEST STUTTGART. The ensembles also give extensive guest performances at home and abroad, performing both together and separately.

The Gächinger Kantorei performs worldwide with outstanding orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In March 2009, the Gächinger Kantorei celebrated its 100th joint concert with the Tel Aviv musicians. There is a particularly close relationship with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Helmuth Rilling and his ensembles have performed at the Salzburg, Leipzig, Lucerne and Prague festivals, as well as in New York, Paris, London, Vienna, Strasbourg, Seoul and other cities. They regularly give guest performances in musical centres and at major festivals throughout Germany (such as the  Beethovenfest Bonn, Rheingau Musik Festival and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival). A major tour of China is planned for 2011, and a tour to South America in 2012.

Numerous recordings - mostly on the hänsslerCLASSIC label - illustrate the ensembles’ great artistic versatility. In addition to the recording of the complete vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach in the EDITION BACHAKADEMIE, the groups specialise in vocal symphonic rarities from the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as contemporary music, including a number of world premieres such as “Litany” by Arvo Pärt (1994), “Requiem of Reconciliation” (1995) and DEUS PASSUS (St. Luke Passion) by Wolfgang Rihm (2000). A special highlight was the first recording of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s opera “Der Onkel aus Boston” in 2004. The latest recordings are Verdi Requiem (with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor Helmuth Rilling, 2009) and the first recording of Alessandro Grandi’s Vespers (conductor Matthew Halls, 2010).

Helmuth Rilling is founder and long-standing Artistic Director of the ensembles; they both also regularly work with guest conductors including Masaaki Suzuki, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Roger Norrington, Ton Koopman, Martin Haselböck, Alexander Liebreich, Morten Schuldt-Jensen, Stefan Parkman, Dennis Russell Davies, Christoph Rademann, Olari Elts and Hansjörg Albrecht. The Bach Collegium has also established a special relationship with the pianists Angela Hewitt Evgeni Koroliov.